Economy

The summer shopping season is off to a solid start. National retail sales were up 3.1 percent year-over-year for the week that ended Saturday, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. Sales were up 2.9 percent compared with the previous week, …

Inland Empire manufacturing turned in another solid month in May. The region’s purchasing managers index was 57.7, well above the 50 benchmark that determines an expanding manufacturing sector, according to the monthly report on business released yesterday by the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San …

National retail sales dropped 1.2 percent for the week that ended Saturday, in part because of record travel during the Memorial Day weekend. Bad weather in some heavily populated areas also contributed to the week-to-week decline, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store …

National retail sales dropped last week, and Mother Nature is being blamed for the decline. Sales for the week that ended Saturday were down 1.3 percent compared with the previous week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index, which was released …

The national unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent in April, a year-over-year drop of 1.2 percent. Forty seven states and the District of Columbia had drops in unemployment last month compared with April 2013, while one state had an increase and two experienced no change, according to data released last …

The Inland Empire isn’t the only place where people are having a difficult time finding a home they can afford: the problem is statewide. Steady price increases and relatively higher interest rates during the first three months of 2014 lead to a drop in housing affordability in every metropolitan region …